‹ Prequel: A Summer Romance
Forgive and Forget
Three
Her mind working overtime, Elina ran her fingers through her thick blonde hair as she drove through the surprisingly busy streets in the normally calm neighbourhood, attempting to not get into a wreck on top of everything. Turning left once she reached a set of surprisingly familiar gates and pulling her driver’s license from her bag, she flashed it to the guard who without question let her drive through.
Parking as close to the entrance as she could, she grabbed her things from the passenger seat and stepped out of the Audi, practically jogging across the lot.
Approaching the large front doors to the Melwood Training Grounds, she cursed softly under her breath as her blue eyes darted back and forth to make sure that she wasn't about to run into any undesired people.
Leave it to her brother to get to train with the reserves just three weeks into the season, only to hurt his ankle within the first half hour...
Stepping in through the large double glass doors, she glanced around uncertain, it was really the first time she was at Melwood because she sure didn't count that time before the summer when she and Simon had been shown around the facilities. They’d met Steven Gerrard as they were walking into the building and she’d been too star struck to really register much after that point, he was after all one of her all-time favourite players.
“Hi, can I help you?” an unfamiliar receptionist asked politely once she stepped further into the lobby of the place.
“Yeah,” Elina nodded slowly as she approached the desk she was sitting behind. “I was asked to come here. Simon Holm hurt his ankle,” she almost stuttered due to a mixture of nerves and dread rushing through her body. “He was training with the reserves today but he usually belongs to the academy.”
“Elina Berglund, right?” the woman smiled friendly as she looked through the files on her computer.
“Yeah, I'm his sister,” Elina nodded, glad that she wasn't accused of being some crazy fan, which she really could have been considering the love she’d had for the club for many years.
“Just one second and I'm going to going to find out exactly where he is,” the auburn-haired woman smiled up at Elina as she picked up the phone, dialling what appeared to be a rather familiar number.
Nodding once again, Elina pushed her hands into the pockets of her jeans as she turned around and looked out through the large windows at the front of the building, unable to keep from nervously tapping her Converse-clad foot against the stone floors. The sun was shining brightly outside and she would give anything to be out there instead of inside the state-of-the-art training facility she was currently standing in.
The nerves that were coursing through her body at an alarming speed had nothing to do with the fact that her accident-prone brother had hurt himself playing football, again. As far as she knew, it was just a minor injury, a sprained ankle; it wasn't like the number of times during the years when he’d broken actual bones.
No, it had to do with the fact that she was standing in the very open foyer at the Melwood Training Grounds...where she knew that the first team was currently training. Simon hadn't been able to shut up about it since he learned that he would be training with the reserves that day, not that she couldn’t have figure it out herself once she got there. The parking lot looked more like a luxury car dealership than...well, a parking lot.
You could call her a coward, or a chicken, she didn't care. She just knew that wasn't ready to run headfirst into her past, a past she knew – deep down – that she hadn't yet come fully to terms with.
Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she jumped slightly before spinning around on her heel, unsure of who would be standing behind her.
The man standing there wasn't who she feared, and she quickly recognised him from when she’d accompanied her brother there back in May. He was a doctor; he’d been there for several of Simon’s medical checks-
“Elina, right?” he asked, holding out his hand for her to shake.
“Yeah,” she confirmed, taking his hand.
“I'm Mark Waller, I don't know if you remember me, but I'm the reserve team doctor and I'm also one of the doctors over at the academy,” he needlessly re-introduced himself to her. “Simon’s this way,” he told her, motioning for her to follow as he lead them across the foyer and down a corridor before pushing open a wooden door with a tall, but narrow window in it, allowing her to go through first.
Despite not remembering much from her first trip to Melwood months earlier, she could recognise a few of the rooms they were walking past and considering the way the rooms became more and more hospital/doctors-office-like, even she could deduce that they were heading towards the treatment rooms.
-x-
Climbing down from the exam-table, gingerly putting weight on his softly throbbing foot, Fernando thanked Víctor, one of the team’s physical therapists and slowly limped out of the room. It was typical that he would have to get injured so soon into the season, before he even really had a chance to prove himself to the demanding home crowd.
It could have been a lot worse though, like the team doctors had repeatedly told him, and she should be feeling lucky, at most he would miss a few practices and maybe the upcoming game and not half a season with a torn ligament or worse, a broken ankle.
Not that he was currently listening on that ear.
Limping down the corridor that was slowly becoming familiar to him, he stopped in his tracks as his brown eyes landed on a blonde woman who was hurriedly walking in his direction, seemingly deeply engrossed in a conversation with Dr Mark.
A blonde woman he’d thought he was never going to see again. As a matter of fact, it was something he’d resigned himself to years ago.
Yet all it took was one glimpse, one look and he recognised her. He still remembered everything about her and sure, she’d changed slightly since he last saw her, had grown up a bit more, but it was still her....
-x-
Listening carefully as Dr Waller explained to her what exactly it was that had happened to her brother, and more indebt about what kind of injury he’d sustained, Elina looked up and froze midstride as her blue eyes landed on an all too familiar man standing only some 20-25 feet away from her.
“Are you okay?” Dr Waller asked as he noticed that she’d stopped, looking between her and the man whom she was all but staring at.
“Yeah, I'm fine,” Elina forced herself to say with a strained smile as she tore her eyes away from the brown-eyes Spaniard and continued towards the treatment room they were heading towards. “I just...” she hesitated, “you know what, never mind,” she brushed off as she refused to look back at the famous striker and stepped through the open door, turning her full attention to her step-brother who was sitting on a stretcher in the middle of the room, bandage around his ankle and a sheepish smile across his face.
“He tackled me!” he exclaimed before she was even fully inside the room.
“So Dr Waller told me,” she smiled as she walked across the room and stopped next to him. Only to smack him in the back of the head when he was least expecting it. “Don't do it again,” she ordered him with a glare.
“Mean,” he grumbled as he reached up to rub the now sore spot on his head.
“Shut up,” she retorted in true sibling-manner. “Be glad I didn't call your dad,” she reminded him. “Or you mom,” she added threateningly, successfully shutting him up. It was a well-known fact that his and Johan’s mother hadn't exactly been onboard with the decision to allow him to move countries before he even turned seventeen.
Her words did what she intended and shut him up as Dr Waller watched them amused before proceeding to tell them both about what Simon should do about his injury, how to get it to heal as quickly as possible.
-x-
Moving along the hall as quickly as his injured ankle would allow him, Fernando stopped just short of the treatment room he’d seen the woman and Dr Mark disappear into. He generally would have felt bad about eavesdropping on what was supposed to be a confidential conversation between doctor and patient, and patients’ family.
But he needed to be sure that it was her.
And they hadn't exactly closed the door after them....
Not that there was even a single part of him that doubted that it was her.
The past couple of weeks he’d been seeing a blonde guy, around 16-17 years old hanging around the canteen, eating with guys who Xabi had informed him belonged to the clubs academy. He’d been sure he’d recognised him from somewhere, only he couldn’t place from where that could be and then when he’d told Pepe about it, the goalie had looked him up on the club’s website.
After that there had be no denying it. The kid still looked about the same, obviously slightly more grown up.
Really, there was no doubt that the woman in that room was the very same girl he’d fallen in love with on a beach on a small Spanish island after his national team’s painful exit out of the Euro’s in ’04...
A voice in the back of his mind – sounding an awful lot like the clubs number 1 goalie – mocked him and the fact that the only reason he was eavesdropping was to get to hear her voice again, to get it undeniably confirmed that it was her.
Ignoring said voice and suppressing a sigh, he continued listening as they were talking, infinitely grateful that his English had improved tenfold since he’d last seen her.
Hearing them move around inside the room, he practically jumped back as she appeared in the doorway, her bright blue eyes boring into him.
Moments passed as neither of them said anything, simply staring at each other and taking in how they had changed in the three years that had passed since they last saw each other.
Elina’s hair was longer, but then so was Fernando’s.
They both looked more mature and Fernando noticed that she’d probably grown an inch or so since their last encounter, and Elina noticed that the freckles that had covered most of his face that summer had faded.
“What are you...?” Simon was asking as he, hopping on crutches, appeared next to his sister, only to stop once he saw the football player standing outside of the room.
“Nothing,” Elina snapped quickly. “Let’s go,” she glanced back at him, making it clear he shouldn’t question her as she cleared her throat uncomfortably and motioned for him to go first before following him back down the hall she’d arrived through just a short while earlier.
Not saying a word to the man whose brown eyes never left her, she didn't stop and she didn't glance back at him as they continued further down the corridor.
Watching them disappear behind a corner, Fernando frowned slightly as he silently wondered why she hadn't even acknowledged the fact that they knew each other. Or why he hadn't opened his own mouth to say something to her...
Shaking his head, he limped down the corridor after them and headed for the parking lot where his car was parked. He wasn't allowed to play, or train, or do anything strenuous really, so he might as well go home and mope.
Walking out through the front doors, he saw Elina standing beside a silver SUV and her blue eyes landing on him for just a moment, he felt just like he had all those years ago. Her eyes had been what first captured his attention back then....
Offering her a half-smile, he couldn’t ignore the hurt that shot through him as she completely dismissed him and simply climbed into the car. Trying to shake off the feeling, he watched her reverse out of the spot and then drive out from the enclosed parking lot as quickly as she could.
Sighing softly, shaking his head slightly, he pushed his hands into the pockets of his loose-fitting jeans and limped over to where his own car was parked. Her behaviour was strange, but he had to remember that they had both changed during the years.
Not to mention, he had no idea how or when, or even if, she’d learned that he was a professional football player...
Parking as close to the entrance as she could, she grabbed her things from the passenger seat and stepped out of the Audi, practically jogging across the lot.
Approaching the large front doors to the Melwood Training Grounds, she cursed softly under her breath as her blue eyes darted back and forth to make sure that she wasn't about to run into any undesired people.
Leave it to her brother to get to train with the reserves just three weeks into the season, only to hurt his ankle within the first half hour...
Stepping in through the large double glass doors, she glanced around uncertain, it was really the first time she was at Melwood because she sure didn't count that time before the summer when she and Simon had been shown around the facilities. They’d met Steven Gerrard as they were walking into the building and she’d been too star struck to really register much after that point, he was after all one of her all-time favourite players.
“Hi, can I help you?” an unfamiliar receptionist asked politely once she stepped further into the lobby of the place.
“Yeah,” Elina nodded slowly as she approached the desk she was sitting behind. “I was asked to come here. Simon Holm hurt his ankle,” she almost stuttered due to a mixture of nerves and dread rushing through her body. “He was training with the reserves today but he usually belongs to the academy.”
“Elina Berglund, right?” the woman smiled friendly as she looked through the files on her computer.
“Yeah, I'm his sister,” Elina nodded, glad that she wasn't accused of being some crazy fan, which she really could have been considering the love she’d had for the club for many years.
“Just one second and I'm going to going to find out exactly where he is,” the auburn-haired woman smiled up at Elina as she picked up the phone, dialling what appeared to be a rather familiar number.
Nodding once again, Elina pushed her hands into the pockets of her jeans as she turned around and looked out through the large windows at the front of the building, unable to keep from nervously tapping her Converse-clad foot against the stone floors. The sun was shining brightly outside and she would give anything to be out there instead of inside the state-of-the-art training facility she was currently standing in.
The nerves that were coursing through her body at an alarming speed had nothing to do with the fact that her accident-prone brother had hurt himself playing football, again. As far as she knew, it was just a minor injury, a sprained ankle; it wasn't like the number of times during the years when he’d broken actual bones.
No, it had to do with the fact that she was standing in the very open foyer at the Melwood Training Grounds...where she knew that the first team was currently training. Simon hadn't been able to shut up about it since he learned that he would be training with the reserves that day, not that she couldn’t have figure it out herself once she got there. The parking lot looked more like a luxury car dealership than...well, a parking lot.
You could call her a coward, or a chicken, she didn't care. She just knew that wasn't ready to run headfirst into her past, a past she knew – deep down – that she hadn't yet come fully to terms with.
Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she jumped slightly before spinning around on her heel, unsure of who would be standing behind her.
The man standing there wasn't who she feared, and she quickly recognised him from when she’d accompanied her brother there back in May. He was a doctor; he’d been there for several of Simon’s medical checks-
“Elina, right?” he asked, holding out his hand for her to shake.
“Yeah,” she confirmed, taking his hand.
“I'm Mark Waller, I don't know if you remember me, but I'm the reserve team doctor and I'm also one of the doctors over at the academy,” he needlessly re-introduced himself to her. “Simon’s this way,” he told her, motioning for her to follow as he lead them across the foyer and down a corridor before pushing open a wooden door with a tall, but narrow window in it, allowing her to go through first.
Despite not remembering much from her first trip to Melwood months earlier, she could recognise a few of the rooms they were walking past and considering the way the rooms became more and more hospital/doctors-office-like, even she could deduce that they were heading towards the treatment rooms.
-x-
Climbing down from the exam-table, gingerly putting weight on his softly throbbing foot, Fernando thanked Víctor, one of the team’s physical therapists and slowly limped out of the room. It was typical that he would have to get injured so soon into the season, before he even really had a chance to prove himself to the demanding home crowd.
It could have been a lot worse though, like the team doctors had repeatedly told him, and she should be feeling lucky, at most he would miss a few practices and maybe the upcoming game and not half a season with a torn ligament or worse, a broken ankle.
Not that he was currently listening on that ear.
Limping down the corridor that was slowly becoming familiar to him, he stopped in his tracks as his brown eyes landed on a blonde woman who was hurriedly walking in his direction, seemingly deeply engrossed in a conversation with Dr Mark.
A blonde woman he’d thought he was never going to see again. As a matter of fact, it was something he’d resigned himself to years ago.
Yet all it took was one glimpse, one look and he recognised her. He still remembered everything about her and sure, she’d changed slightly since he last saw her, had grown up a bit more, but it was still her....
-x-
Listening carefully as Dr Waller explained to her what exactly it was that had happened to her brother, and more indebt about what kind of injury he’d sustained, Elina looked up and froze midstride as her blue eyes landed on an all too familiar man standing only some 20-25 feet away from her.
“Are you okay?” Dr Waller asked as he noticed that she’d stopped, looking between her and the man whom she was all but staring at.
“Yeah, I'm fine,” Elina forced herself to say with a strained smile as she tore her eyes away from the brown-eyes Spaniard and continued towards the treatment room they were heading towards. “I just...” she hesitated, “you know what, never mind,” she brushed off as she refused to look back at the famous striker and stepped through the open door, turning her full attention to her step-brother who was sitting on a stretcher in the middle of the room, bandage around his ankle and a sheepish smile across his face.
“He tackled me!” he exclaimed before she was even fully inside the room.
“So Dr Waller told me,” she smiled as she walked across the room and stopped next to him. Only to smack him in the back of the head when he was least expecting it. “Don't do it again,” she ordered him with a glare.
“Mean,” he grumbled as he reached up to rub the now sore spot on his head.
“Shut up,” she retorted in true sibling-manner. “Be glad I didn't call your dad,” she reminded him. “Or you mom,” she added threateningly, successfully shutting him up. It was a well-known fact that his and Johan’s mother hadn't exactly been onboard with the decision to allow him to move countries before he even turned seventeen.
Her words did what she intended and shut him up as Dr Waller watched them amused before proceeding to tell them both about what Simon should do about his injury, how to get it to heal as quickly as possible.
-x-
Moving along the hall as quickly as his injured ankle would allow him, Fernando stopped just short of the treatment room he’d seen the woman and Dr Mark disappear into. He generally would have felt bad about eavesdropping on what was supposed to be a confidential conversation between doctor and patient, and patients’ family.
But he needed to be sure that it was her.
And they hadn't exactly closed the door after them....
Not that there was even a single part of him that doubted that it was her.
The past couple of weeks he’d been seeing a blonde guy, around 16-17 years old hanging around the canteen, eating with guys who Xabi had informed him belonged to the clubs academy. He’d been sure he’d recognised him from somewhere, only he couldn’t place from where that could be and then when he’d told Pepe about it, the goalie had looked him up on the club’s website.
After that there had be no denying it. The kid still looked about the same, obviously slightly more grown up.
Really, there was no doubt that the woman in that room was the very same girl he’d fallen in love with on a beach on a small Spanish island after his national team’s painful exit out of the Euro’s in ’04...
A voice in the back of his mind – sounding an awful lot like the clubs number 1 goalie – mocked him and the fact that the only reason he was eavesdropping was to get to hear her voice again, to get it undeniably confirmed that it was her.
Ignoring said voice and suppressing a sigh, he continued listening as they were talking, infinitely grateful that his English had improved tenfold since he’d last seen her.
Hearing them move around inside the room, he practically jumped back as she appeared in the doorway, her bright blue eyes boring into him.
Moments passed as neither of them said anything, simply staring at each other and taking in how they had changed in the three years that had passed since they last saw each other.
Elina’s hair was longer, but then so was Fernando’s.
They both looked more mature and Fernando noticed that she’d probably grown an inch or so since their last encounter, and Elina noticed that the freckles that had covered most of his face that summer had faded.
“What are you...?” Simon was asking as he, hopping on crutches, appeared next to his sister, only to stop once he saw the football player standing outside of the room.
“Nothing,” Elina snapped quickly. “Let’s go,” she glanced back at him, making it clear he shouldn’t question her as she cleared her throat uncomfortably and motioned for him to go first before following him back down the hall she’d arrived through just a short while earlier.
Not saying a word to the man whose brown eyes never left her, she didn't stop and she didn't glance back at him as they continued further down the corridor.
Watching them disappear behind a corner, Fernando frowned slightly as he silently wondered why she hadn't even acknowledged the fact that they knew each other. Or why he hadn't opened his own mouth to say something to her...
Shaking his head, he limped down the corridor after them and headed for the parking lot where his car was parked. He wasn't allowed to play, or train, or do anything strenuous really, so he might as well go home and mope.
Walking out through the front doors, he saw Elina standing beside a silver SUV and her blue eyes landing on him for just a moment, he felt just like he had all those years ago. Her eyes had been what first captured his attention back then....
Offering her a half-smile, he couldn’t ignore the hurt that shot through him as she completely dismissed him and simply climbed into the car. Trying to shake off the feeling, he watched her reverse out of the spot and then drive out from the enclosed parking lot as quickly as she could.
Sighing softly, shaking his head slightly, he pushed his hands into the pockets of his loose-fitting jeans and limped over to where his own car was parked. Her behaviour was strange, but he had to remember that they had both changed during the years.
Not to mention, he had no idea how or when, or even if, she’d learned that he was a professional football player...
♠ ♠ ♠
Elina